


Light My Morning Sky with Burning Love

by doilycoffin



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Barebacking, Coffee Shops, Dragon!Jared, Dragons, Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, Switching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-06 12:09:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12817215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doilycoffin/pseuds/doilycoffin
Summary: Jensen is your typical, overworked med student with a caffeine dependence who's carrying a torch for the distressingly sexy, nicotine addicted owner of the coffee shop he frequents in order to to get his fix, and like any good Samaritan would, he decides to help Jared kick his smoking habit for good.  What he doesn't know is that Jared’s keeping a secret of the large, scaly, fire-breathing variety.That's the not-so-typical part.





	Light My Morning Sky with Burning Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NaughtyPastryChef](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NaughtyPastryChef/gifts).



> Ooh, ooh, ooh,  
> I feel my temperature rising  
> Help me, I'm flaming  
> I must be a hundred and nine  
> Burning, burning, burning  
> And nothing can cool me  
> I just might turn into smoke  
> But I feel fine
> 
> 'Cause your kisses lift me higher  
> Like a sweet song of a choir  
> And you light my morning sky  
> With burning love
> 
> -Elvis Presley 
> 
> This story was inspired by [the dragon prompt mentioned in this tumblr post](http://freudensteins-monster.tumblr.com/post/120516939916/mythological-creature-aus) and is written for the lovely [nerdygeekypastrychef](http://nerdygeekypastrychef.tumblr.com/) although I think "inflicted upon" is probably more accurate since I accidentally wrote 20,000 words instead of the four or five thousand that I originally intended. Oops? 
> 
> Also, I mentioned the story to her way back when I first started writing it and took approximately 10,000 years to finish it, so that's also my bad. Love ya, Kristen!

In many ways (most ways, really), Jensen took pride in what he did. Sure, being a third year med student meant dealing with an obscene amount of stress, being haunted by a creeping sense of self-doubt every time he made the slightest mistake, and having almost all of his free time (what little he had outside of his clinical rotations at any rate) consumed by studying, effectively destroying most of his social life. But it also meant having the chance to actually work with patients on a regular basis and get a taste of what it felt like to make a tangible, positive difference in peoples’ lives, which only cemented Jensen’s belief that there was nothing he wanted more than to become a physician. 

 

 

Plus, the grueling curriculum gave him an excuse to drag his exhausted, sleep-deprived self to the coffeehouse just around the corner from his apartment on a regular basis to mainline some much needed caffeine. Smok Cafe was a charming little place that served some of best coffee that Jensen ever had the pleasure of desperately chugging down after pulling all-nighters, and the impressive selection of blends were always roasted to such perfection that he half-suspected that they were cultivated by some kind of benevolent coffee wizard. The atmosphere was cozy and relaxed, and the decor was somewhat medieval in theme with its smattering of dragon figurines and paintings. Jensen had to admit that it was bit of an odd choice of motif for a cafe, but it somehow managed to be endearing rather than tacky, and Jensen would be lying if he said that there weren't occasions where he would amuse himself by nabbing a couple of the figurines and pitting the plastic dragons against each other in mock-battle when he needed a break from cramming medical information into his brain. 

 

There was also the fact that going to the cafe meant being able to stare (hopefully with some degree of subtlety, but he kind of doubted it) at the shop’s twenty-something year old proprietor, Jared Padalecki, as he bustled behind the counter and chatted amiably with every customer he came across, making sure they all left with a smile no matter how foul their mood was when they walked in. Jared was, in all likelihood, one of the cutest guys that Jensen had ever met although it was probably odd for him to describe someone as “cute” when they looked like they could bench press him without much trouble. It was true though: despite Jared’s intimidating height and insanely (unfairly) toned physique, his floppy hair; dazzling eyes that seemed to change color every time Jensen saw them; and his deliciously pink lips that were tugged into a constant, dimpled grin made it difficult to see Jared as anything other than adorable, and the man’s sweet-as-pie demeanor didn’t exactly help matters.

 

Even now, when it was close to midnight and a couple of hours past closing time, Jared was still whistling behind the counter as he jovially wiped it down, not looking the least bit exhausted  even though Jensen knew for a fact that he had been on his feet for hours because he himself had been at the cafe nearly all day, hunched over an array of textbooks and piles of notes (and occasionally, like today, Jared even let him hang around after normal business hours to study while he made preparations to ensure that the next day's busy morning ran smoothly.). He didn't know how Jared managed to stay so damn cheerful and generally perfect while he felt like death warmed over. 

 

Sometimes he was sure that Jared's mere existence must be rooted in something unnatural. Maybe he really was a coffee wizard. Or an android. Or the result of some mad scientist's experiment. Or-- 

 

A coffee mug clanged as it was placed on his table. 

 

\--or an angel sent from above,  here to deliver Jensen from caffeine deprivation. 

 

Jared winked at him. 

 

"Consider this one on the house, princess." 

 

For once, Jensen didn't even bother pretending that he was annoyed by Jared's unfortunate choice in nicknames and instead desperately reached for the mug and took a deep gulp, uncaring of how hot it might be. In a split-second, Jensen realized that something was amiss and he spat a mouthful of coffee back into the cup, much to Jared's amusement. 

 

"It's free because you switched me over to decaf, you monster," Jensen accused, mentally amending Jared's status from 'angel' to 'satan.' "How could you do this to one of your most loyal customers?" 

 

Jared feigned an innocent look. "To be fair, you usually don't notice when I cut you off and give you decaf instead." 

 

"You do this on a regular basis?!" 

 

Jared flopped down in the chair across from Jensen and pouted at him. 

 

"Give me a break, man," he whined as he pilfered one of the massive medical tomes on the table and flipped through the pages. "If I let you guzzle down as much caffeine as you want,  then you'd probably drop dead of a heart attack right here in my cafe. Doesn't this book of yours talk about the dangers of caffeine overdose?" 

 

"That's a textbook about the female reproductive system," Jensen pointed out as Jared scrutinized a glossy, highly detailed diagram of a uterus. He tried to focus on his righteous anger and not let himself be distracted by the endearing way Jared that wrinkled his brow in concentration. "And I think I'm a little more qualified than you to judge how much caffeine I can handle. But I appreciate your noble attempts at trying to prevent my hypothetical, untimely death. Kind of. Even though you're wrong." 

 

"Well, dead bodies are generally pretty bad for business," he replied with a cavalier shrug. 

 

"Maybe 'noble' wasn't the right word." 

 

Jared drummed his fingers on the table thoughtfully. 

 

"Then again, I might be able to drum up some more traffic if you kicked the bucket in here. I could probably spread some rumors that the shop is haunted to draw in tourists. Maybe capitalize on it and sell some 'booberry' muffins or something," he pondered aloud as Jensen glared at him. 

 

"...should I be worried that my evening is about to take a gruesome turn?" 

 

Jared leaned forward a little, close enough that Jensen thought, just for a single, heart-stopping second, that Jared was about to kiss him right there in the middle of the deserted coffee shop and Jensen instinctively tilted his head just slightly in anticipation, his espresso-breath be damned. Instead, he was more than a little disappointed when Jared reached over to pinch his cheek between his thumb and forefinger in a manner that gave him disturbing flashbacks to his grandmother. 

 

"Aww, don't you fret. I could never let anything happen to this pretty face," he cooed while Jensen attempted to smack his hand away. 

 

When Jared finally released him from his clutches and sat back in his chair with a grin, Jensen glowered at him as he rubbed his cheek,  ignoring the weird little flip that his stomach did when Jared called him "pretty." 

 

Just as Jensen was trying to remember what he found so alluring about this aggravating man in the first place, Jared's gleeful smile softened a little bit into something more gentle and concerned.

 

"You really should go home and get some sleep. You look like you're pushing at least forty-eight hours," he tutted as he began gathering together the mess of loose papers and books so that Jensen could put them into his messenger bag. "If you wait a couple of minutes, I can brew you up some chamomile tea to drink before bed and walk you home once I finish locking up."

 

Oh, right.  _That_  was why. 

 

"It's more like thirty-six hours. Barely. And you don't have to walk me home," he protested weakly, only putting up a token fight. 

 

"Well, someone's got to make sure that you don't walk  into traffic while you're half-asleep, don't they? Plus, my place is in that direction anyway." 

 

Jensen knew for a fact that Jared was lying about that because he had seen him stroll out of the coffee shop at the end of the day in the exact opposite direction often enough, but he didn't call him out on it. It was all just a part of the game they played with each other every so often. Jensen would pretend that Jared offering to walk him home late at night didn't make him want to break out in a tap dance and Jared would act like doing so wouldn't cause him to go out of his way. Then, they would walk far too close together on the short journey to his apartment, and Jensen would tell himself that their close proximity was simply incidental and had nothing to do with the fact that Jared's hand would occasionally brush past his own while they were walking and Jensen would always wonder what would happen if he reached out and held it in his own for the rest of their walk. He never actually did it though, which meant he never actually found out whether Jared would yank his hand away and look at him like he was crazy or whether he would simply smile in that big, dumb, beautiful way of his and leave their hands joined without comment. Then when they finally got to his apartment, Jensen would always linger in front of the door for a just a moment too long and think about how this was finally the night that he would look Jared in the eye and boldly invite him into his apartment because it was far too late in the evening for him to be walking all the way home and Jensen had a perfectly nice couch that he could crash on instead. And an even nicer bed. 

 

But he never did that either. 

 

Instead, as was the custom of their little routine, they parted ways at Jensen's front door and Jared sauntered on home into the chilly, dark, night  while Jensen lied alone in his bed and thought about how, one of these days, he would finally just go for it and make his move.

 

 

The most frustrating thing about it was that he was almost positive that Jared liked him as well. He was always allowing Jensen to stay late at the cafe when he was furiously studying, or giving him free drinks (sometimes they were deceptively decaf, but still), or letting his gaze linger just a little bit too intently on his lips whenever Jensen was ordering at the counter. There were even more than a few times where Jensen could swear that Jared was checking him out; sometimes it even happened on days when Jensen shambled barely-awake into the cafe after clinical rotations in filthy, rumpled scrubs and just generally looked like a complete and utter mess. If that didn't indicate true attraction, then Jensen didn't know what did. So why were they both so incapable of actually voicing that attraction? 

 

Maybe someday.

 

*********************

 

Sometimes, Jensen pondered as he sat at his usual table, he liked to kid himself that he would walk into Smok Cafe one of these days and finally be able to cast away his infatuation with Jared by convincing himself that the man wasn't actually the best thing since sliced bread. Jared's coffee wasn't  _that_  great, after all. And his ass didn't look  _that_  great when he wore a tight pair of jeans and wiggled it just ever so slightly whenever he bent over. And it wasn't like he was  _that_  charming and pleasant to be around. 

 

Well, okay, those things in particular weren't exactly true, but Jensen was sure that Jared had dozens of flaws lurking just underneath the surface. It became somewhat harder to tell himself this, however, when the man in question began making a beeline towards  his table with Jensen's long awaited double-espresso in one hand and a plate with a lemon muffin on it in the other. When Jared plopped down the plate in front of him, he stared at it blankly. 

 

"I didn't order this," he pointed out. 

 

"I figured that you probably forgot to eat breakfast again," Jared said, half-chastisingly. "Plus, I feel kinda bad for tricking you into drinking decaf the other night; the relationship between a cafe owner and his caffeine addicted customers is a sacred bond of trust. That was the first thing they taught us in Coffee School." 

 

"You  _should_  feel bad," Jensen agreed, his voice muffled by the gigantic bite of muffin he just took. "But I'm pretty sure that you'll do it again anyway. 

 

He decided to ignore the remark about "Coffee School" altogether, partially on the grounds that it was too ridiculous to humor but mostly because thinking about it would only lead to him imagining Jared as a naughty schoolboy and he didn't want to deal with having an awkward boner in the cafe. Again. 

 

"Yeah, I probably will," Jared said nonchalantly. "But I can always just keep bribing you with free baked goods to make up for it." 

 

"You're the worst." 

 

"Love you too, princess." 

 

Before he could even grumble out a half-hearted "stop calling me that," Jared was already disappearing back through the kitchen door behind the counter and Jensen was left trying to remind himself that Jared's "love you too" was said in sarcasm which meant there was no good reason for his heart to skip a beat when he said it. 

 

All-in-all, he didn't pick the best day to try to find Jared's fatal flaw. As a mostly-broke med student, he couldn't exactly look down on someone for giving him free breakfast, regardless of the teasing that accompanied it. 

 

The only thing that he managed to put in the "flaw" column that morning was the fact that he got a strong whiff of smoke when Jared reached out to place his breakfast on the table, but he figured that it didn't really count since he'd suspected for months now that Jared smoked. His clothes seemed to reek of the stuff more days than not, so it didn't seem like much of a leap to assume that he was a heavy smoker, and the idea of it made Jensen feel somewhat...conflicted. 

 

On the one hand, he considered himself to be a live-and-let-live guy; Jared could chainsmoke three packs a day and it still wouldn't be any of Jensen's business what the guy decided to do with his spare time. And he could also admit that he allowed himself to daydream from time to time about the image of Jared sneaking outside during his breaks to lean against the alley wall, his pretty, pink lips wrapped around a cigarette (usually while wearing a leather jacket, but that part was pure fantasy; Tragically, Jared might not even own one in the first place for all he knew). 

 

On the other hand, he  _was_  an aspiring physician, so it was most likely frowned upon for him to get hot and bothered by the idea of Jared smoking. There was also the fact that he'd done a pulmonary rotation not too long ago that left him just the tiniest bit traumatized for life when it came to the dangers of smoking so, if anything, he probably had an obligation to give Jared unsolicited assistance when it came to quitting. In a professional capacity, obviously, not in a "I have a big, stupid crush on you and worry about your health" capacity. 

 

Right. 

 

********************

 

Operation "Get Jared to Quit Smoking" had been underway for a couple of weeks and aside from having a woefully uncreative name, it was also largely unsuccessful so far. At first, he tried to approach the endeavor somewhat subtly by "accidentally" leaving pamphlets lying around the cafe that had distressingly graphic depictions of emphysema and various other lung diseases. He thought that he had done it in a way that might not even be traced back to him, but these hopes were eventually dashed when Sandy, one of the baristas, came over to his table one day, dumped a pile of pamphlets on it, and asked him to "please stop leaving your gross disease-porn lying around because it's creeping out the customers." 

 

He also wasn't sure whether Jared even saw them at all, so phase one of his plan hadn't exactly been a slam dunk. 

 

The next stage of his plan involved casually leaving his  _Pulmonary Diseases and Disorders_  textbook on the edge of his table in the hopes that it might catch Jared's eye.when he walked by. He could admit that phase two of his scheme was somewhat lackluster, but Jared was always coming over to his table to poach one of the chairs when he was bored and flip through whatever notes and textbooks Jensen brought with him as if he owned the place (which, to be fair, he technically did), so Jensen figured that it was worth a shot. 

 

This step actually ended up being marginally successful in that Jared eventually did end up pilfering the book from Jensen's table at one point, but his idle curiosity about the textbook only lasted for a couple of minutes and, as far as Jensen could tell, he didn't appear to have any grand epiphanies about his lifestyle choices. Instead, he quickly grew bored with the subject matter after flipping through the pages much too quickly to even read some of it and turned his attentions toward chiding Jensen for skipping meals (again), which eventually resulted in Jared forcing him to eat a turkey sandwich while he grumpily wondered how  _he_  was the one that ended up being put on the defensive instead of the other way around. 

 

Things hadn't exactly been going according to plan so far, but it wasn't like Jensen thought that he would be able to get Jared to instantaneously quit smoking through the power of anti-smoking propaganda or anything like that. And it wasn't like he imagined that Jared would recognize that it was all Jensen's doing and be so blown away by his efforts that he would fall deeply, madly in love with him...and possibly give him free coffee for life (but that part was just icing). 

 

Okay, it's possible that he'd fantasized about that exact scenario, but he at least knew that it wasn't  _realistic_. A guy could dream though. 

 

It was also possible that his somewhat-lackluster plan thus far hadn't exactly been a masterpiece, but he believed that it was a pretty solid effort from someone who only managed to get four hours of sleep per night (and that was only if he was particularly lucky). It was the thought that counted, probably. 

 

While crafting phase three, Jensen decided that he had been too subtle during his previous attempts. Sure, leaving books and pamphlets lying around the shop had been well and good, but it wasn't like he could actually force Jared to read them. Instead, Jensen decided that he would take a more direct approach and try to naturally work in the topic of quitting smoking into conversation with him while also not making it seem like he was actually talking specifically about Jared by instead coming up with an intricate story about his "uncle" who struggled with a nicotine addiction for decades before finally kicking the habit for good. It was a little convoluted, sure, and he had devoted more time than he wanted to admit to creating an overly elaborate backstory for his faux-uncle, but he figured that it was probably one of those things that sounded more complicated in his head than it would be in practice. 

 

************

 

Unsurprisingly, things didn't exactly go according to plan, and Jensen found himself having a difficult time getting an opening to actually utilize his fabricated story. He didn't want to just blurt it out; it had to happen organically and as if he hadn't spent an unreasonable amount of time concocting a fake backstory for his equally fake uncle (most of which was, admittedly, not even related to the topic of smoking. Why the hell would Jared need to know that his "uncle" was a retired airforce pilot turned sheep herder who makes blackberry jam in his spare time?)

 

As a result, Jensen spent an entire Saturday afternoon trying to engage Jared in conversation and sulking into his coffee when it became clear that the cafe was much too busy to allow for chit-chat between them. Jared was preoccupied with constantly alternating between manning hordes of customers at the front counter and bustling between the tables to deliver various sandwiches and pastries to hungry customers, pausing every so often to blow an errant strand of hair out of his face while his hands were full. 

 

Although Jensen enjoyed having the opportunity to ogle Jared while he was too busy to notice him staring at him like a lovelorn teenage girl and/or stalker, it wasn't exactly conductive to enacting his plan. It wasn't until late in the evening when things had died down considerably that they even had the opportunity to say more that a couple of words to each other and Jensen was jolted out of a light doze when he heard the chair across from him creak in protest as Jared all but collapsed into it and let out a weary sigh. 

 

"Man, it sure got crazy in here for a while," he complained in lieu of a greeting.

 

Jensen regarded him unsympathetically. 

 

"You're the one who decided that having a half-off sale for all the baked goods was a brilliant idea," he reminded him.

 

"Well, I didn't think we'd get  _bombarded_  just because of it," Jared defended. 

 

"There's also a bunch of tourists in town because of the music festival happening this weekend. And you were short staffed because you gave one of the baristas the day off so she could go to said festival. And your shop is only a quarter mile from a campus filled with broke college students who would go to any lengths for cheap food. And--" 

 

"Alright, alright," Jared pouted, crossing his arms and looking for all the world like a petulant child. "You don't have to pile it on. Can't a guy just get a little sympathy every once in a while?"

 

Jensen smiled sweetly at Jared and nudged his coffee mug across the table towards him. 

 

"Maybe when I get a refill, you slacker." 

 

Jared gave him a pitiful, beseeching look. 

 

"You're really gonna make me get up again even though I've been on my feet all day long?" 

 

"Technically, your cafe is still open for another..." Jensen paused to glance at his watch, "...fifteen minutes. So you've still gotta keep your customers happy. Don't make me revise my Yelp review." 

 

Jared glared at him, but Jensen found it difficult to be intimidated by it because his dimples showed up even when he was angry (or pretending to be, anyway) and he found it more cute than anything. 

 

"That's cold, Ackles," Jared replied as he heaved himself out of the chair and took the mug with him behind the front counter to refill it. "You don't just threaten another man's Yelp page all willy-nilly like that." 

 

Jensen wondered if Jared knew that he could refill the mug with literal mud and Jensen probably most likely still wouldn't say an unkind word against his business. 

 

He probably did. Just like Jensen knew that Jared was never actually annoyed by any of his demands and that his scowling and grumbling was always just for show. 

 

"You're an addict, you know. One of these days, I'll have to stop taking advantage of you and just cut you off for your own good," Jared said he came back to the table a minute later, sliding the mug towards Jensen . 

 

Distantly, Jensen realized that he could probably use that as some kind of segue to talk about nicotine addiction, but he was too distracted by thinking of all of the many, many other ways (and positions) in which Jared could take advantage of him. There was also just something striking about Jared in that moment; the way his disheveled apron was covered in droplets of coffee that must have splattered on him at some point during the afternoon rush, the way the low lighting in the cafe made his eyes seem darker and more sultry than usual, the way his messy hair framed his face and swished a little bit whenever he turned his head, the way he was biting the corner of his lip just slightly, clearly trying not to smile and shatter the illusion of sternness that he was trying to convey. Jensen supposed that that none of these things were particularly remarkable just in and of themselves, but they made Jared seem especially radiant that evening all the same. There was something about these little stolen, late night moments between them, ones that had become more and more frequent over the past few weeks and months almost without Jensen realizing it, that caused the longing that he always felt around Jared (and away from Jared) to pound more fiercely in his chest than usual, and it took him a few seconds to realize that Jared had been speaking to him and waving his hand in front of his face, in an attempt to get his attention. 

 

"--feeling okay?," Jared asked, obviously concerned.

 

Jensen scrambled to find something to say, feeling a bit embarrassed that Jared had clearly noticed that he had been spacing out. 

 

All he had to do was say something; anything, really, but preferably something smooth enough to make Jared forget that he had been staring at him like a complete weirdo, but the only words that came immediately to mind were things that would only make it worse like "I was just thinking about how soft your hair looks," or :I love the way your nose scrunches up when you pretend to be annoyed at me," or "why haven't we just kissed each other already?"

 

"My uncle Clyde finally quit smoking after doing it for thirty years," he blurted out instead after completely blanking on the question for much longer than was probably normal. It wasn't smooth, exactly, but it was probably better than anything else that was floating around in his head at the moment. And at least it got him back on track with his original plan, however awkwardly. 

 

Jared looked at him in complete bafflement. 

 

"Your...what? Did you just have a stroke or something?" 

 

"No! I was just thinking about it for some reason. About how, uh...how proud I am of him for kicking the habit after so long." 

 

Jared sat back down in his chair and smiled at him despite still appearing quizzical over Jensen's non-sequitur. 

 

"That's great, man," he said brightly. "It must have been hard to quit something like that after doing it for so long."

 

Jensen couldn't help but scoff a little bit on the inside at the way that Jared talked about quitting smoking as if he himself weren't a smoker. He was kind of hoping that Jared would initiate the topic himself. 

 

"Yeah," Jensen continued, "he used to go outside for a smoke break just about every chance he got. It really consumed a big chunk of his life for a while."

 

"That must have sucked. I can't imagine being so dependent on something like that." 

 

Jensen valiantly resisted the urge to bang his head against the table. Jared was turning out to be a lot more stubborn than he'd anticipated. 

 

"I guess it did, yeah, but it really helped when he started talking to people about how much he was struggling with it," he said pointedly. "Being supported by others can really make a difference when it comes to these kinds of things. You know...by family. Or friends. Or...customers." 

 

When he finished he looked at Jared expectantly, hoping that his expression conveyed the appropriate amount of sympathy and understanding, but he was pretty sure that he must have missed the mark, judging by Jared's continued puzzlement. 

 

"Are you sure that you're feeling okay?," he asked carefully. 

 

"Yes! I just thought that you might find hearing about my uncle Clarence to be, you know, _relatable_  or something," Jensen babbled, a little flustered about the fact that things weren't going down quite how he pictured initially. At this point, he had been hoping that Jared would admit to struggling with his own addiction to cigarettes so Jensen could show him what a great and supportive ally he could be. Or something like that. 

 

At the very least, he wanted Jared to stop looking at him like he'd lost his mind. 

 

"...Clarence? Didn't you say that your uncle's name was Clyde a couple of minutes ago?" 

 

Well, shit. 

 

"'Clyde' is...his nickname?," Jensen tried, somewhat pathetically. 

 

Jared clearly wasn't quite buying it, so Jensen decided that he would switch tracts to hopefully divert attention away from his imaginary uncle. 

 

"Okay, okay, I'll stop beating around the bush: You don't have to pretend anymore. I already know your secret, and I was just trying to help." 

 

For just a second, Jensen could swear that he saw a nervous expression flicker across Jared's face, but it was schooled into something more calm after only a brief moment. 

 

"What secret?," he asked, his voice a little off-kilter. 

 

"I've seen you sneaking away from the front counter and coming back a few minutes later, reeking like smoke," Jensen explained, noticing that Jared began to look anxious again. He must have really been embarrassed by his secret habit, and Jensen felt a little guilty about prodding him about it. 

 

"Look, I don't know what exactly you've seen, but I can explain--" Jared said frantically at the same time that Jensen said "But I just wanted to let you know that you don't have to hide the fact that you're a smoker from me and that if you want to try giving it up, I'm here whenever you need someone to talk to about it." 

 

For a moment, Jared just stared at him in wide-eyed silence and Jensen worried that he'd crossed a line and upset him. What the hell was he doing anyway? He was basically interrogating the poor guy about something that wasn't any of his concern anyway. His friends always told him that he was like a dog with a bone when he committed to an idea, and he might have taken it too far with Jared. Maybe he should just apologize and-- 

 

"You got me," Jared interrupted his self-recrimination with a sheepish little grin. "I thought I was hiding it pretty well, but I guess I was no match for your deductive skills. You must have been paying awfully close attention to me to find out about it." 

 

Jensen fiddled with the sleeve of his jacket and suddenly felt very aware of Jared's gaze upon him even though he was avoiding eye contact. 

 

"Maybe you were just being really obvious. You're like eight feel tall...not exactly the most inconspicuous guy around," he half-mumbled. 

 

"Whatever you say, princess," Jared conceded disbelievingly. "So ever since you found out, you've just been waiting around for the opportunity to talk to me about the perils of smoking?" 

 

Jensen buried his face in his hands, giving him a muffled "yup." 

 

"And can I just assume that your lame uncle Clyde/Clarence story was fake?" 

 

"Hey, I put a lot of work into that. I think 'lame' is a bit harsh," he replied defensively. 

 

"You forgot his name." 

 

"...I put work into everything except that one part."

 

"Mmhmm." 

 

Jared was quiet for a few seconds and Jensen was relieved at the thought that the questions have come to an end. 

 

:"Jensen?"

 

Or not.

 

"...Yeah?"

 

"Were you the one who left all those gross pamphlets about lung disease lying around here a little while back?" 

 

"...Maybe." 

 

"You're kind of a weirdo," Jared said, but his tone sounded more amused than anything. Jensen finally glanced back up at him and felt warmed when he saw that Jared was smiling at him and looked fond instead of like he might ban Jensen from his cafe for being kind of a stalker. Despite his embarrassment, he couldn't help but smile back. 

 

"I know." 

 

They lapsed into silence after that, but it didn't feel like an awkward one. He had spent enough nights at the cafe alone with Jared to realize that he didn't need to force conversation between them like he often did when he was around other people. With Jared, there was an ease between them whether they were chatting idly about this or that, or whether Jensen was simply reviewing his notes while Jared was occupied with getting ready to close down the cafe. 

 

Jensen optimistically hoped that Jared had dropped the subject of what happened earlier and wasn't going to mention it again. In hindsight, he felt a bit silly about all of his scheming and he wasn't eager to be teased about it again. He knew that he would have no such luck, however, when Jared turned to him after ushering him to the front door so he could lock up. His hand was on the door handle, so close to giving Jensen the blessed freedom freedom to continue on with his evening in peace, go to sleep, and pretend like the whole thing never happened. Who said that repression was unhealthy? He was pretty sure that he could get on-board with it. 

 

But alas. 

 

"You know, I still never found out why you care so much whether I smoke or not," Jared said curiously, his voice softer than usual. The lights in the cafe were all turned off, but even in the darkness, Jensen could see a look of hesitancy on his face that he'd never seen there before. Vulnerability, even, and it was such a foreign expression to see, that Jensen felt jarred by it. He was so used to seeing Jared with a smile on his face (whether because he was feeling generally cheerful or because he was taking delight in teasing him) that it never occurred to him that Jared could be insecure or as unsure of himself as Jensen often felt. That maybe Jared lied awake some nights, thinking about all of the "could be"s of their relationship just like he did. That maybe he was as lonely as he was. 

 

Jensen told himself  that he could just be projecting, but part of him wanted to believe that he wasn't imagining the little spark of hope that he detected in Jared's words. 

 

"I just figured that someone needed to look out for you. Uh, healthwise and whatever, I mean," he answered, chickening out about the real reason. 

 

"Well, of course. I'm sure that you launch personally-targeted health campaigns for people all the time," Jared played along, nodding sagely. 

 

"Yeah, next week I'm doing a skit about the dangers of high-cholesterol for one of my neighbors. I think it's really gonna turn his life around," Jensen joked. 

 

Jared gave him a teasing smirk. "Mmm, I bet. Did anyone ever tell you that you can be a little invasive?" 

 

"Hey, I'm a doctor. Well, pre-doctor. Potential doctor. Whatever. I'm supposed to be sanctimonious about other people's health. It's like a rule or something."

 

"You know, I think some people forget about that part of the Hippocratic Oath, but your dedication to it is inspiring," Jared commended wryly. 

 

Jensen knew that he could let the whole thing go right now; just let it become another joke between them, but he realized that he didn't really want that at all. He'd had several opportunities in the past to confess his feeling to Jared--hell, he had a few of them just in the past evening--, but he always came up with excuses about why he shouldn't do it. Like that he didn't want to risk ruining their friendship, or that Jared might not even be into men after all, or that he'd have too find a new coffee shop to loiter in if their relationship went sour. Or that he was too afraid of being faced with the possibility that Jared just plain didn't like him to even try. 

 

Those excuses had always seemed iron-clad to him before, but he couldn't think of a single one of them in that moment. The only thing he could think about was the longing on Jared's face when he asked why Jensen went through so much trouble for him, as if it wasn't obvious. 

 

"I like you," he blurted out before he could think better of it, and Jared seemed frozen in surprise, but he didn't look disgusted or any other overtly negative emotion, so Jensen took that as a good sign and continued. "I have for a while now, and then I realized that you smoke and that's fine, but I had this mildly traumatic rotation with Dr. Rosenbaum--" 

 

"What, who?" 

 

"--And he had all these patients with emphysema and lung cancer and whatever, and he kept showing me these terrible pictures of diseased lungs that he'd operated on. Like, even during lunch, he would go on and on about it. I don't even know why he wanted to eat lunch with a bunch of med students, I think he might just be kind of weird--"

 

"--and then I started having these creepy nightmares where you got lung cancer and Dr. Rosenbaum was performing surgery on you and he started removing your lungs and replacing them with a bunch of coffee bean, which was actually really weird, but the point is that I just didn't want you to become another patient that some doctor tells stories about to a bunch of med students --" 

 

"Jensen." 

 

"--so I thought that I could try to subtly persuade you to stop smoking so that I wouldn't have to worry about you anymore, except doing that just made me think about you constantly, and I'm supposed to be focusing on making it through the rest of med school, so I really can't be getting distracted all--"

 

" _Jensen_!"

 

" _What_?," he said a little more loudly than he intended, his voice echoing in the empty cafe. "For the love of God, can you just let me finish? I'm trying to do something here, you asshole." 

 

Jared was grinning at him, entirely unrepentant. 

 

"I was just trying to get you to stop and take a breath before you passed out or something  because I think this is the most I've ever heard you talk at once. What else could you possibly have left to say?" 

 

"...I don't remember," he admitted. 

 

"Well, I think I got the gist of it anyway." 

 

Jensen looked at him a little nervously. 

 

"...and?," he prompted. 

 

"And you liiiiiike me," Jared sing-songed, an affectionate smile on his face.

 

It probably should have seemed childish to Jensen, but it was more endearing than anything even though he pretended to be annoyed. 

 

"Shut up."

 

"You so do, though. You have a big, stupid crush on me, and I'd be embarrassed for you if I didn't have one on you too." 

 

Jensen's heart soared a little at that, and he felt a dopey grin begin to stretch its way across his face that he tried to reign into a more dignified, playing-it-cool expression. 

 

"I don't know if I'd call it a 'big, stupid crush,'" he defended. "More like a teeny-tiny infatuation."

 

"You literally dream about me."

 

"Yeah, ones where you're getting cut open by a weird doctor. Not exactly hot and steamy," Jensen pointed out, deciding to keep to himself how many dreams he'd had about Jared that  _were_  hot and steamy. Way, way too many. 

 

Jared shrugged nonchalantly. 

 

"Some people are probably into that kind of thing." 

 

Jensen decided not to dignify that with a response, and quickly realize that he hadn't ever actually planned this far ahead when it came to confessing his feelings to Jared. A part of him was convinced that Jared didn't reciprocate, and he suddenly felt at a loss for words. 

 

Luckily, Jared didn't have that problem. 

 

"Just out of curiosity," he drawled, "How long have you been pining away for me?" 

 

Jensen hoped that the darkness in the cafe meant that Jared couldn't see his face redden. 

 

"There was no _pining_ ," he grumbled. "But it's...been a while, I guess. There was this one time around Christmas a couple of years ago when I came in here in a pretty shitty mood. I remember that I was stressed out because I had a ton of studying and writing to do over the break, and on top of that, I was too broke to afford to fly back to spend Christmas with my family, so I was feeling homesick like crazy."

 

"I remember that," Jared murmured softly. 

 

"And I'm pretty sure that I was taking my bad mood out on everyone, just really Grinching it up and moping at my table all day long. I was probably a dick to you too, now that I think about it." 

 

"You were. You told me that you would strangle me with my Christmas lights if I kept trying to distract you from your essay," Jared agreed fondly. 

 

"Yeah, that sounds about right. But even though I was being an ass, you closed down the cafe a little early and made me drink hot cocoa with you and eat a some kind of weird ginger cake that was actually pretty good, and when I asked you why you were being so nice to me, you said 'you're not allowed to be grumpy in my cafe when it's almost Christmas, so I'm just gonna'--"

 

"--'Force-feed you holiday cheer until you stop being a Scrooge and get happy,'" Jared finished, word-for-word. 

 

Jensen smiled, pleasantly surprised that Jared recalled the day as well as he did. 

 

"And then we watched stupid holiday tv-specials on your iPad for a few hours, and I really  _was_ happy." 

 

"You've been mooning over me for two years because I gave you hot chocolate and cake?," Jared teased.

 

Jensen rolled his eyes. 

 

"Because you went through the effort of making me less miserable even though I probably didn't deserve it, dummy," he clarified. "The cake and hot chocolate was just a bonus. The fact that you looked weirdly hot in your awful reindeer sweater didn't hurt either."

 

"A: that sweater is a masterpiece; how can you think it's awful when the reindeer are dressed like the dudes from KISS? It's awesome," Jared held up a finger to shush Jensen's rebuttal before continuing, "and B: you always deserve to be happy, and you'll never convince me otherwise." 

 

There was something about the way he said it so casually, as if it were just a given that he wanted Jensen to be happy (wanted to be the one to  _make_  Jensen happy) that made Jensen's throat feel tight, and he didn't know quite what to say to it.

 

Instead, he asked, with his voice wavering slightly, "well, I told you my story, so it's only fair that you tell me yours." 

 

Judging by the look Jared gave him, he probably knew that Jensen was trying to change the subject, but he obliged him all the same. 

 

"About when I realized that I like you? It was probably around the same time as you, actually, give or take a couple of months. You probably don't even remember it, but you had fallen asleep at your table because you had been up all night studying, like usual, and when I came over to wake you up after a couple of hours, you were drooling all over your notes.

 

"I was  _not_." 

 

"Everywhere," Jared asserted. "And when you sat up, one of the pages was stuck to your face, and you said 'I told you to stop putting salmon in my ice skates,' and then you fell right back asleep. And that's when I knew."

 

"So I drooled on your table and babbled nonsense at you.  _That's_  your story? Mine was way better," Jensen said, a little disappointed that being sleep deprived was apparently all it took to win Jared over. 

 

"I like my story just fine," he answered indignantly. "You looked cute all sleepy and dopey like that. It made me think about what it would be like to wake up in the morning with you."

 

Well then. Jensen supposed he could live with that story after all. 

 

Jared opened his mouth to say something else, but Jensen was tired of talking. Instead, before he could think better of it, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to Jared's. He didn't respond at first, and Jensen nearly pulled away to apologize when Jared's lips began moving against his own in a heated kiss and Jensen found himself being pressed gently against the front door while Jared kissed him like his life depended on it. He could admit to himself that it wasn't an objectively perfect kiss; his shirt was riding up a little and the glass of the door was freezing against his back, the darkness in the cafe wasn't exactly conductive to being graceful about the whole thing, and Jensen was pretty sure that he was sporting some fairly serious coffee breath. But despite that, it was amazing enough to leave him feeling dizzy and slightly breathless when they finally pulled away from each other. 

 

While they were both grinning at each other and catching their breath, Jensen tried to commit every sensation and detail about their kiss into his memory: Jared's warm hands resting firmly around his waist. The way Jared kept almost breaking because he couldn't stop smiling widely. The way he tasted not of cigarettes like Jensen expected, but a little smokey in a subtle way that reminded him a little bit of whisky. 

 

"I can't believe we've both been into each other for like two years and we've never done that before," he bemoaned, breaking the silence. 

 

Jared's body was still pressed against his own, and he huffed out a laugh into the crook of Jensen's neck. 

 

"Yeah, I, uh...I don't really do this kind of thing often," he said, his voice a mixture of embarrassment and anxiety. "Relationships, I mean. Or anything relationship adjacent, really." 

 

Which was honestly kind of crazy to Jensen; Jared didn't exactly seemed like the kind of guy who would have trouble in the romance department. Hell, Jensen had seen scores of people try to slip him their number while he was taking their order, but Jensen couldn't recall Jared mentioning a significant other or even going on a date with someone in all the time that he'd known him. 

 

"I guess I was afraid that I'd mess it up if I tried to start something up with you," Jared confessed. 

 

Jensen smiled reassuringly. 

 

"Well, then I guess it's a good thing that I made the first move...it  _is_  a good thing, right?"

 

Jared kissed him again, briefly this time, but no less passionately. 

 

"A great thing," he confirmed. "We'll...figure it out, I'm sure. I think we owe it to ourselves to try."

 

"Good," Jensen said in relief. 

 

It wasn't until they were about to leave (for real, this time), that Jensen remembered something. 

 

"Did my plan even work at all?,: he asked curiously while he was pulling on his jacket. 

 

"The what now?" 

 

Jensen sighed in mock-exasperation. 

 

"The smoking thing! Remember how I was trying to get you to quit because I'm a weirdo with no boundaries?" 

 

"Hmm...I guess I could give it a shot." 

 

"Yeah?," Jensen asked, surprised. 

 

"Depends on what kind of incentives you give me," Jared said while waggling his eyebrows suggestively. 

 

Jensen snorted, but he let Jared pull him into another kiss anyway. 

 

He could live with that. 

 

****

 

This time when Jared walked him home, he didn't have to imagine reaching for his hand because Jared intertwined their fingers before he even had the chance. He wondered if it was silly to get so giddy over just holding someone's hand, but the warm comfort of his hand being engulfed by Jared's own and the way that Jared's thumb would absentmindedly stroke along his wrist every so often made him not even care. 

 

He still went to bed alone that night, but Jared gave him a sweet goodnight-kiss-turned-makeout-session in front his apartment door that left him feeling weak in the knees, so he couldn't complain. 

 

***

 

At first, Jensen had been worried that the transition from being friends to being...well, more-than-friends would be a rocky one in some ways or at least require an adjusting period of some sort, but he found it to be strangely effortless in most aspects, most likely thanks to the fact that he and Jared just seemed to fit together with a natural ease. They always had, really, even before romantic feelings came into play. Jared understood the fact that Jensen's life more or less revolved around doing well in med-school, and he never got frustrated about it like some of his past boyfriends (or flings, more often than not) did, complaining that he never had time for them. 

 

In contrast, Jared knew when to leave him to his studies and when to force Jensen to take a small break here and there so he could de-stress for a while before he drove himself crazy. In the past, he did this through occasionally dropping baked good and sandwiches on Jensen's table to remind him to eat, and he'd usually stick around for a few minutes to regale Jensen with tales about strange orders and even stranger customers that he'd encountered throughout the day. 

 

Now, he still did those things, but there was the added bonus that the enforced breaks often included kisses and wandering hands when the cafe was empty or on the rare occasions that Jensen's free time coincided with Jared being off work and they could go up to his apartment to have more privacy. 

 

In this case, "having more privacy" mostly just meant "drinking beer and making out while watching whatever shitty movie was playing on tv, but it was still the happiest that Jensen had felt in longer than he could remember. He hadn't realized how heavily that having unrequited feelings for Jared was weighing him down until the burden of it was lifted away by finding out that Jared had felt the same way all along. They were taking things at a relatively slow pace; they still hadn't slept together yet (unless occasionally passing out on his couch curled up next to Jared counted), but he still felt a level of intimacy with Jared that he'd never experienced with anyone else before.

 

Sometimes he worried that it would all come crashing down at some point, that maybe Jared would wake up one day and decide that he could do better than a guy who spent more time in hospitals and studying for board exams than he did with his boyfriend and who either structured most of their time together during breaks in the aforementioned studying or ended up falling asleep on him during their dates, if they could really be called that (in Jensen's defense though, Jared was basically a human furnace, so it was hard  _not_  to get cozy enough to fall asleep). 

 

But Jensen knew that he was just being cynical; his mom was always telling him that he spent so much time convincing himself that he was eventually going to eventually ruin a good thing that he didn't take time to enjoy it while it lasted and he didn't want his relationship with Jared to end like that. 

 

In fact, if he had it his way, his relationship with Jared would never end at all.

 

*****

Jensen's plans to meet up with his study group that morning were prematurely ended when two of his colleagues both had something come up, and rather than study by himself, Jensen took it as a sign that he should have the ever-elusive day off.  It was rare that Jensen got an entire day to himself, free from doing rounds or studying until his eyes crossed, and he was shamelessly basking in it. Sure, maybe staying in bed until 10 a.m and eating leftover pizza while watching Netflix for a few hours didn't qualify as "living it up" for most people, but for Jensen it was practically the height of luxury. The only thing that was putting a damper on his blissful state of indolence was the fact that Jared wasn't there to share it with him. 

 

It had taken a herculean amount of effort to force himself to leave his apartment, but he finally peeled himself off of his couch in the mid-afternoon after he found himself longingly sniffing a jacket that Jared had left there the last time that he was over and came to the conclusion that he should probably curb that particular bit of weirdness before it escalated any further and leave his apartment so he could track down Jared. He had been so busy with his hospital duties and his study group over the past few days that he'd barely seen Jared at all and Jensen found himself missing him something fierce, so bringing him his jacket seemed like as good an excuse as any to drop by the cafe and convince Jared to leave early so they could go on a proper date for once. One that didn't involve being at Jared's place of business or Jensen making him help him memorize flashcards about arteriovenous malformations or whatever he was stressing out about that day.

 

At least, that's what he _planned_  to do. 

 

Instead, he went to Smok Cafe only to find a distinct lack of Jared. 

 

"Sorry, Jensen. He was here for a couple of hours in the morning, but he took the rest of the day off since Wednesdays are usually pretty slow anyway," Sophia apologized from behind the front counter. 

 

Jensen slumped in defeat. 

 

"I was gonna bring him his coat though," he said while waving the jacket pitifully in front of him as if it would somehow summon Jared from inside the depths of the cafe. "And since when does he take random afternoons off? It seems like he's always around when I get here."

 

Sophia smirked at him. 

 

"He's always around when he's pretty sure  _you'll_  be here," she pointed out a little too gleefully. "He probably thought you weren't coming in today."

 

Which...made sense, actually. Jensen  _did_  tell Jared that he'd be at the library all day with his study group. 

 

"I'm pretty sure he doesn't build his work schedule around the possibility of me showing up here," he argued just to be contrary even though the idea of Jared trying to spend more time with him (even if he had to do it while working) made him feel a little touched. 

 

Unfortunately, the heartwarming revelation was ruined by Sophia rolling her eyes. 

 

"Whatever," she sighed before putting a deceptively bright smile on her face. "Are you gonna order something or do I have to kick you out so I can attend to the  _paying_  customers"

 

"You know, you're a lot meaner than Jared is," he grumbled as he pulled out his wallet. "Just give me my usual."

 

"I like to run a tight ship when he puts me in charge. Besides, you're not  _my_  boyfriend; I don;t have to keep you happy with free muffins and coffee like Jared does so you'll put out later," she said cheerily with what Jensen could only assume was a wicked gleam in her eye. 

 

"'Put out?!' I don't--," he sputtered as his face heated up. "...when did Jared tell you that we started dating?" 

 

Their relationship wasn't a secret, exactly, but Jensen wasn't quite thrilled at the idea that Jared's employees were gossiping about them, even though it was inevitable. 

 

Sandy just looked confused though. 

 

"Uh...never? I mean, I guess he never officially told me, but you've been dating for like...at least a couple of years, right? It's kind of old news," she explained while deftly preparing Jensen's drink and setting it on the counter. 

 

"We've been dating for one months tops!" 

 

She started at him blankly for several seconds before cackling in delight. 

 

"Are you serious?," she wheezed. "You've been eye-fucking each other across the cafe for ages. How did it take you both  _years_  to get your shit together? This is amazing; Chad is gonna love this." 

 

Jensen could only glare at her impotently as she laughed while swiping his credit card. And kept laughing while he signed his receipt. Jensen only found peace when her laughs came to an abrupt end when she looked at his receipt and saw the empty gratuity line. 

 

"Aw, no tip?," she pouted. "Does Jared know how cheap his boyfriend is?" 

 

"Here's a tip: don't make fun of your customers," he sniped as he slung Jared's jacket over his shoulder and grabbed his coffee cup. 

 

He ended up tossing a few dollars in the tip jar at the end of the counter out of guilt on his way out when he knew that Sophia wasn't looking anyway. 

 

Although he was momentarily disappointed that his plan to surprise Jared at work and force him to play hooky had gone awry, he figured that surprising Jared at his house would work just as well. Unless he wasn't there either, in which case Jensen would probably give up and just text him or something, which would ruin the "surprise" angle, but whatever. 

 

Jensen had only been to Jared's place a few times before since his own apartment was at a more convenient distance from the cafe, and he still found himself in awe of it each time. He wasn't sure what he had been expecting the first time that Jared invited him over (then again, he'd never really thought too deeply about what kind of home would suit Jared; a silly part of him associated him so strongly with his cafe that he half-expected him to just live there, if anything), but the huge, Victorian style house that he was met with came as a surprise. 

 

The house was painted a light blue color that was accented with navy, and there was something oddly whimsical about the place that made it almost seem like it belonged in a fairytale, right down to the fact that it had a turret on the side of it that made it seem vaguely reminiscent of a castle. Although it must have been nearly a century old, it was well-maintained and clearly had a lot of love and dedication put into it. That said, it didn't quite seem like the kind of home befitting the salary of a cafe owner, but Jensen assumed that it must have been passed down to him from his parents. 

 

His back-up guess was that the house was haunted and that a real-estate agent managed to sucker Jared into buying a murder-house on the cheap. Jared never confirmed either of these theories, but he was so tickled by the idea of having ghostly roommates that he'd taken to banging pots and pans together and making goofy "Ooooh" noises when he was out of sight of Jensen in an effort to convince him that his home really was haunted. In reality, it mostly just convinced Jensen that his boyfriend was a huge dork. 

 

After retrieving the spare key that was hidden under a very conspicuous ceramic hedgehog, Jensen walked through the foyer and tossed Jared's coat on the couch before plopping down next to it. He saw no sign on Jared in the living room, and it almost felt eerie to be there when everything was so quiet. He was so used to Jared boisterously chattering at him and just generally making noise that the absence of it made the place seem cavernous somehow when it normally felt cozy despite how large it was. 

 

"I brought your coat back," Jensen called, on the chance that Jared was upstairs and hadn't heard him come in. 

 

No answer. 

 

"This is Jensen, by the way, not a serial killer," he added, just in case. 

 

Still no reply. 

 

Jensen sighed and fiddled with a globe that was sitting on the coffee table in front of him. There were little markings on many of the countries that spanned around it, and Jensen marveled at them, wondering if they denoted all the places that Jared had visited at one point or another. He had learned over the past month or so that Jared was quite an accomplished traveler, and the inside of his home reflected this. If there were an interior decorating magazine titled "Eccentric Adventurer Monthly," then Jared could probably make the front cover with the amount of antique maps plastered on the walls, display cases filled with centuries old weaponry from various countries, bookshelves lined with rare first editions written in a variety of languages, and ornate paintings that were all littered throughout the house. 

 

Sometimes Jared would tell him stories about going to places like France, Russia, Egypt, and so many others, and it made Jensen daydream about travelling to faraway places like that with him so they could create their own amazing stories together. 

 

It was a silly thought; he was so busy with med-school and planning his career that the idea of traveling the world anytime soon was almost laughable. Still though, he liked to fantasize. 

 

He was in the middle of sending Jared a text to ask him where the hell he was when a loud banging sound echoed throughout the house that made him jump in his seat. 

 

Maybe Jared really was there after all.

 

When he hoisted himself off of the couch, he saw out of the corner of his eye that the basement door was slightly ajar, which immediately struck him as odd since the door had been firmly shut every other time he'd been there. He'd never even been down there before as it was the one area of the house that had been excluded from the grand tour that Jared gave him when he first came over. 

 

As he approached the door curiously, he heard a strange metallic rustling sound as if someone was scraping bits of metal against each other, and he rolled his eyes. Jared must have heard him when he opened the front door earlier or something and managed to abscond into the basement undetected so he could do his "haunted house" schtick again to mess with him. 

 

The door let out a long creak when he swung it fully open and as he made his way down the wooden stairs, he shouted, "Very funny, Jared. This ghost thing is gonna get old eventually, you know.” There was no answer and Jensen had about two seconds to mentally commend Jared for actually being kind of creepy this time until he reached the bottom of the stairs and saw several things about the sight in front of him that ceased to make logical sense. 

 

The basement was filled with oddly arranged piles of trinkets, first of all; the most noticable one being an honest-to-god, Scrooge McDuckian pile of gold in the center of everything, composed of coins, various pieces of jewelry, chalices, and even some tiny, kitschy gold statues. 

 

And yet, finding a literal hoard of gold in his boyfriend's basement didn't even come close to being the weirdest thing about the room. No, that dubious honor was reserved for the fact that there was a huge creature that was nearly the size of a car curled on top of it. One covered in brilliant blue and green scales that glimmered brightly even under the low lighting in the basement. 

 

Jensen might have been able to convince himself that Jared was simply harboring some sort of rare, Central American giant lizard in his basement (he traveled a lot, so it was technically plausible-ish) if not for the fact that there was a pair of large, glossy wings folded against its back. Jensen was able to get over his hysteria just long enough to come to the impossible conclusion that he was undeniably staring at a  _dragon_. 

 

A dragon that was staring right back at him with wide eyes almost as if it were just as shocked as he was. 

 

There were a lot of thoughts going through Jensen's head at the moment, such as "Why the fuck does Jared have a dragon in his basement?," and "Since when do dragons exist in the first place?," and "Why the hell am I not running for my life before I get mauled to death by a mythical creature?" 

 

That last one seemed to be the most prudent , and Jensen scrambled backwards towards the stairs but lost his balance and landed gracelessly on the bottom step with a yelp, which was unfortunate because the dragon seem to finally be roused from its own shock and began to move restlessly on the pile of gold so it could dismount from it to move closer towards Jensen. 

 

He tried to use the railing on the stairs to pull himself up and make a dash for the door, but his legs had turned to jelly out of fear, and he knew then that it was all over for him. He was going to get ripped apart by Puff the Magic Dragon in a basement and all he had wanted to do that day was have one tiny date with his boyfriend. 

 

If this was some sort of cosmic punishment for taking the day off from studying, he personally felt like it was a bit harsh.  

 

He was in the middle of imagining what his family would say when they were interviewed for the Dateline episode about his tragic and mysterious death (he was pretty sure that people wouldn't actually suspect a dragon as the cause, because why the hell would they?) when something even stranger happened, which was saying something because the past couple of minutes had been pretty goddamn strange to begin with. 

 

But not as strange as it was for him to see the presumably man-eating dragon;s form change smoothly into that of his boyfriend's right before his very eyes. 

 

That pretty much took the cake. 

 

The impossible sight in front of him made everything go hazy for a while and Jensen determined that he had almost certainly hallucinated the past several minutes, because seeing a dragon was bizarre enough, but seeing a dragon turn into a person was on a whole other level of improbability. He was still lost in his own head when he became distantly aware that Jared (a hallucination of Jared?) was frantically trying to tell him something as he was tugging on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. 

 

"--swear I was gonna tell you eventually. It's just-- I mean, how do you tell someone that you're a dragon? It's crazy, right? I mean, not for me, obviously, but it's crazy to most people who are regular-people and not dragon-people," he babbled. 

 

Jensen stared vacantly for a few seconds before bursting into a fit of laughter that was probably on the wrong side of hysterical and Jared paused his rambling to look at him in concern. 

 

"I've had people warn me about this," Jensen said despondently when his laughter tapered off. 

 

"About...dragons?," Jared guessed, confused. 

 

"People were always telling me stories about med-students having nervous breakdowns and going off the deep end when they couldn't handle the stress anymore," he said as if he hadn't heard Jared. "I mean, my brother had one guy in his program that completely lost it a couple of weeks before his boards and he streaked though the hospital naked while singing Taylor Swift at the top of his lungs. I think he hadn't slept in like 70 hours or something." 

 

"Uh..." 

 

"And I never thought anything like that would happen to me. I always figured that I had a pretty good handle on things. Not a  _great_ handle, but good enough, probably. Except now I'm hallucinating shape-shifting dragons, so I guess I'm actually doing pretty badly. Oh god, this means I'm the naked Taylor Swift guy now," he continued, his voice growing more panicked. 

 

"You're not hallucinating," the hallucination of Jared assured, and Jensen finally met his gaze and addressed him directly. 

  
  
"That's exactly what a figment of my imagination would say," he pointed out sharply before deflating and putting his head between his knees in an effort to stave off a panic attack. 

 

"Why now? I'm not prepared to have a nervous breakdown. It could have at least waited until I've done my Psych rotation," he moaned. 

 

Imaginary Jared moved forward cautiously and began rubbing comforting circles on his back. Jensen noted that he felt oddly solid for a hallucination. 

 

"I don't really think that people can schedule their nervous breakdowns," Jared said gently, "but even if they could, I feel like I should point out, once again,  that this is all perfectly real." 

  
"Was Jared ever even my boyfriend at all or did I just make all of that up too? What if this isn't a hallucination and I'm just in a coma or trapped in some kind of dream world like in that movie? Holy shit, is this what  _Inception_  was about? Am I being inceptioned?," Jensen questioned as if he hadn't heard what was just spoken to him. 

 

Jared grimaced. 

 

"Oh, yikes," he said, hissing a sharp intake of air between his teeth. "You're taking this way worse than I thought you would. And I already thought you would take it pretty badly, so..." he trailed off, seemingly at a loss. 

 

Jensen didn't say anything and Jared's face took on a pained expression. 

 

"Man, I messed you up pretty good, huh?, he said, guilt dripping off of his tone as he helped a still-shocked Jensen get to his feet so he could shuffle him up the stairs, quietly murmuring platitudes along the way. 

 

It wasn't long until they made it to the living room and Jared deposited Jensen onto the couch before disappearing into the kitchen for several minutes. During his absence, Jensen used the time to process his thoughts and came to the conclusion that he was willing to accept the possibility that everything that just happened wasn't a hallucination. Maybe. Kind of. 

 

He didn't want to entirely discount the inception theory. 

 

Eventually, Jared came back holding a streaming mug that he sat down in front of Jensen. 

 

"It's tea," he explained, fidgeting awkwardly. "I know you drink coffee like a fiend, but I was...kind of afraid to give you any right now. But the tea might help you calm down." 

 

"Fine," Jensen replied dully. When he wrapped his hand around the mug, the ceramic was so hot that it burned his palm a little bit, and he found the slight pain to be oddly grounding and used it as more evidence that he really wasn't dreaming or hallucinating. 

 

The jury was still out on whether or not that was a good thing, however. 

 

Jared was biting his lip nervously and drumming his fingers on his thigh from where he was sitting across from Jensen. He seemed to realize that Jensen wasn't going to kick off the conversation because he cleared his throat and said, "So, uh you can ask me questions if you want. I'll be honest with you, so just feel free to--"

 

" _What the fuck_?" 

 

Jared winced. "Yeah, that's probably fair." 

 

"You're a  _dragon_?," Jensen asked, his voice rising in pitch. "How and why is that even a thing?" 

 

"Well, when a mama dragon and a daddy dragon love each other very much..." Jared began in a misguided attempt to insert some levity into the tense situation, but stopped when Jensen pinned him with a flat stare. 

 

"Please don't." 

 

Jared sighed, and when he spoke again, his voice was serious in a way that Jensen rarely heard from him. 

 

"I guess I can't tell you  _why_ dragons exist, because we just...do. For thousands of years, I'm pretty sure. A lot of human cultures have their own mythology and stories about the origins of dragons, and while there are certain things that I can definitely confirm to be false, I also don't really have a good explanation myself," he said with a shrug. 

 

Jensen supposed that was fair enough, really, since it probably wasn't reasonable to expect Jared to know the grand purpose behind the existence of his species, but it didn't exactly sate his curiosity.

 

"But why can you also turn in a human? Can all dragons do that? Are there people-dragons everywhere? Can you breathe fire and stuff?," he asked in rapid succession. He had always knowing exactly how certain things worked-- probably one of the reasons he found himself drawn to the field of medicine-- and his natural thirst for knowledge was beginning to overtake the previous shock and disbelief that he felt. 

 

To his credit, Jared didn't seem overly fazed by the onslaught on questions and only took a minute or so to collect his thoughts. 

 

"The fire one is probably the easiest to answer," he said with a small smile before he pursed his lips and exhaled gently. Even though Jensen knew that it must be coming, he was still astonished by the small flame that Jared extended in front of him and he was hypnotized by it for the several seconds that it appeared. 

 

"Ta-dah," Jared exclaimed awkwardly, looking at Jensen like he was mildly afraid that he would bolt. 

 

"Wow," Jensen breathed as it hit him once again that Jared was really, seriously a dragon. It was probably going to take him a while to get used to that. 

 

Jared seemed to relax once it was clear that Jensen had moved into the "awe" phase of realizing that his boyfriend was less human than initially assumed instead of the "my entire concept of reality is collapsing around me" phase. 

 

"It's a pretty handy trick," he said. "And yes, all other dragons have, as far as I know, a human form that they can take, but that's about as far as the shapeshifting abilities go.  This is the only human shape that I have; I can't change myself to look like someone else or anything like that." 

 

Jensen wondered if all dragons were ridiculously gorgeous when they transformed into people or if Jared was just a lucky bastard, but he refrained from saying it aloud so he could hear Jared continue. 

 

"And I don't really have a good explanation for why we have that innate ability either, aside from the fact that dragons are, well, magic. My mom liked to tell me that many centuries ago, Gaia-- mother earth-- witnessed the slaughter of dragons at the hands of misguided humans who hunted us out of fear and was so grieved that she blessed us with the ability to disguise ourselves as humans in order to better protect ourselves. It's a nice story but, again, who's to say for sure?" 

 

He took a few seconds pause to sip at his tea, and Jensen barely resisted the urge to impatiently demand that he go on. 

 

"But is it likely that you've run into any other dragons aside from myself? I'd honestly be surprised if you have," Jared mused. 

 

Jensen frowned.

 

"Does that mean there aren't very many of you left?"

 

"There are definitely a lot more humans than dragons out there, but we aren't really in any danger of extinction if that's what you mean. Dragons tend to be...isolated, that's all," he clarified. "Most of them keep to themselves and I can't really imagine any of them voluntarily setting foot into a crowded city full of humans like this one, much less less living in one." 

 

"You do, though," Jensen pointed out obviously. 

 

"I'm a bit eccentric as far as dragons go." Jared;s tone seemed be shooting for lightness but Jensen could tell that he was pained by it. "Like I said, most of us prefer to live in isolation, and that's not just in relation to humans; it usually extends to our own kind as well. Dragons stick close to their mates, of course, but we tend not to be very sociable otherwise, and even spending time with our own kin if fairly rare. I haven't even seen my parents or siblings in years." 

 

Jensen boggled at that; his own family was pretty close-knit for the most part and he couldn't imagine going months without talking to his parents, let alone years. It was especially difficult to imagine someone as affable and outgoing as Jared living like that. 

 

"That sounds...kind of shitty," he admitted. 

 

"It probably does seem strange, or maybe even cruel, in the context of most human societies," Jared agreed, "but for dragons, that's just life. Most of us are so long-lived that going years or decades between seeing family doesn't even make much of a difference in the long run. I know that my parents and siblings love me; we just don't interact with the world in the same way. They prefer to live remotely and only venture into civilization when necessary, but I've always been social. I think it's one of the reasons that I've always been drawn to human societies. Your relationships with each other are so...interesting. They're much more exciting than what I grew up with." 

 

Jensen wondered somewhat bitterly if Jared was only with him because of the novelty of having a relationship with one of the creatures that he was so fascinated by and he snorted before muttering. "I'm glad you find us so amusing then. It must be so quaint when you get one of us to date you." 

 

He felt a pang of regret, however, when Jared flinched at his words. It was barely noticeable, but he was obviously hurt by it and Jensen felt guilty for his jibe because Jared was clearly trying to be open and honest with him. 

 

He opened his mouth to say as much when Jared spoke to defend himself. 

 

"I didn't mean it like that. It's just that being a dragon is so  _lonely_ , you know? And that's fine for most of us, but I hate it. That's why I like living here in the city; there's so many people to meet and talk to and.." his voice trailed off and when he began speaking again, it was a little more softly, a little more fondly.

 

 "And...fall in love with," he finished, looking at Jensen almost shyly, and cliche as it was, he could swear that his heart skipped a beat. 

 

"I meant it when I told you that I don't really do relationships," Jared explained, echoing the words that he hesitantly confessed to Jensen in the dark quiet of his cafe not that long ago. "I've lived among humans for a long time, but I've never been  _with_  one. It just seemed like doing something like that would be playing with fire, pun intended, and I didn't want to risk people finding out about the whole 'dragon thing.' But I was drawn to you anyway, and I care about you, I honestly do. Even if you break up with me today, I hope that you believe that. I was never with you because I have some kind of weird human-fetish," Jared implored, gazing at Jensen mournfully. 

 

"I never said I was going to  _break up_  with you," he said, reeling slightly from the revelation that Jared hadn't been in a relationship with a human prior to him. The gravity of it made him feel a strange mix of pleased and anxious. "Sometimes a guy just needs a little time to absorb the fact that his boyfriend is a dragon, that's all." 

 

Jared's shoulders sagged in relief as he sank back into his chair and Jensen hadn't realized until then just how tense he had been the entire time. 

 

"Yeah?," Jared asked, hopeful. 

 

"Yeah," Jensen agreed with a reassuring smile. "I mean, this is...a lot, and I'll admit that I didn't react very well at first--"

 

"You thought you were being 'inceptioned,'" Jared pointed out helpfully, and Jensen glared at him before continuing. 

 

"...right, well, the point is that I'm doing pretty okay with it now. I don't really know how this," he gestured between the two of them, "is supposed to work, but I'm pretty sure that I want to try. We have a pretty good thing going, right?" 

 

"Yes!," Jared blurted out enthusiastically, a little too loudly. He ducked his head bashfully and cleared his throat before continuing in a lower volume, "I mean, yes, what we have is great, and I don't want to lose it."

 

"...and I'm really the first person that you've ever been with?," he asked curiously. He felt both surprised at the idea that someone who looked like Jared could be so inexperienced, dragon or not, but he also felt a little smug at the possibility that he was the only human to catch his interest romantically. 

 

Jared blushed and the sense of smugness grew. 

 

"You're technically the only  _person_ ," he admitted, "but I'm not a virgin, if that's what you're getting at. I've been with a couple of other dragons before that I thought I could have a mateship with, but it never ended up working out. The last time was...a while ago, though."

 

"'A while ago' as in a few years?," Jensen guessed. 

 

"I'm pretty sure it was around the time of King George's coronation." 

 

"Wasn't that in the 1930s? Christ, man," Jensen said in awe. It hadn't really occurred to him how much older Jared was than him until then, and it was difficult to wrap his mind around. 

 

"Er...pretty sure it was King George the First," Jared corrected, his cheeks still red. 

 

Jensen let out a low, astonished whistle. 

 

"Holy shit, that's like," he paused, trying to remember his history classes, "a four hundred year dry spell. And I thought I was hard-up." 

 

"Yeah, yeah," Jared huffed, "believe me, I know it's been a long time. I just never really found another dragon that I was compatible enough with to settle down  permanently with and I was always too hesitant to get that close to a human, so...," he shrugged. 

 

"Not even a one-night stand or something though?" 

 

Jared's lips quirked upwards in amusement. 

 

"Dragons aren't really wired that way. Sex is...kind of a big deal, typically, and most of us only do it when there's at least a strong possibility that it could turn into a mateship. I'm not exactly the most traditional guy as far as dragon customs are concerned, but things like that are still kind of important to me. Besides," he said as he grasped the hem of his shirt to pull it up, "I figured it would be kind of hard to hide something like this from a human partner that I was sleeping with." 

 

To Jensen's surprise, Jared yanked the shirt over his head to reveal his bare chest, and he was confused by Jared's sudden burning desire to be shirtless until he realized what he must have been referring to. Located right on the area where his heart was, there was a large patch of scales that were the same beautiful mixture of blue and green that Jensen observed in the basement. 

 

Jared watched him anxiously as if he was concerned that Jensen would be disturbed by it, but Jensen only lifted his hand and reached towards him hesitantly. 

 

"Can I...?" he asked, and Jared nodded. 

 

Jensen grazed the tips of his fingers over the scales, tentatively at first, and marveled at how smooth they felt, almost silky and not at all rough like he might have expected. After exploring the sensation for a few seconds , he rested his palm against Jared's heart and noted that the scales felt slightly hotter than the rest of Jared's already unusually warm skin. Jared leaned into the touch with a lax expression and Jensen wondered whether it was him touching the scales or just his touch in general that Jared seemed to take comfort in. 

 

"We all keep this piece of our dragon-selves with us when we use our human form, Practically speaking, it's for protection; we're pretty resilient, but getting stabbed in the heart is pretty much game over for just about anyone and our scales are a lot tougher than human skin. On a more spiritual level though, I think we keep it as a reminder of our true nature." 

 

Jensen had been so focused on listening to Jared and feeling the steady _thump-thump_  of the heartbeat beneath his palm that he had forgotten that he had basically been groping his chest, and he lifted his hand away a little sheepishly. 

 

"What do you mean?" 

 

"Dragons are, well,  _dragons_  first and foremost and sometimes it's easy for me to forget that since so much of my life is spent around humans. If I stay in this form for too long, I feel...unbalanced. Our of sorts. I have to get all dragon-y every so often to stave it off." 

 

Which made sense, Jensen supposed. Whenever he felt overwhelmed by the amount of studying he had to do or, as was happening sadly too often, the amount of bodily fluids that he ended up covered in at the hospital, he liked to unwind with an hour or two of watching trashy daytime tv or terrible dating shows (now that he thought about it,  _My Boyfriend is Secretly a Dragon_  might be a pretty good pitch for one) and Jared's own way of relaxing involved him using his basement as a dragon den. It was basically the same thing. Sort of. 

 

"Wait, when you say 'dragon-y' does that have anything to do with the fact that you apparently like to roll around in piles of gold like you're a cartoon duck?," he asked half-teasing and half genuinely inquisitive because he had almost forgotten about that particular piece of weirdness in a day that had plenty to go around. 

 

Jared pouted at him. 

 

"Technically, I only have one pile of gold," he amended, "and I don't  _roll around_  in it; I just like to sit on it sometimes. Or take a little nap." 

 

"...please tell me you realize how ridiculous the thing you just said to me is." 

 

"It's," Jared paused to search for the best way to explain, "just a dragon thing. We like our treasure hordes is all; it's just in our nature to collect it. Mine's actually pretty puny in comparison to what most of us have , but I've moved around a lot and stuff like that is a huge pain in the ass to lug around. Dragon problems, right?" 

 

He seemed almost embarrassed by it, as if he felt like he should be able to resist his natural impulses, and Jensen regretted poking fun at him for it. 

 

"It's a...really nice hoard," he offered somewhat awkwardly. "Very shiny and what-not. Maybe you could show it to me again sometime so I can get a better look?" 

 

He decided not to bring up the fact that the reason he didn't get a good look the first time was because he started having a teensy tiny panic attack. 

 

Jared's face brightened at that and Jensen speculated to himself about whether or not dragons collected their hoards partly in order to attract a mate and he felt butterflies flutter in his stomach at the thought that Jared's happiness could be due to the fact that wanted to impress him. Jared had referred earlier to mating and how he hadn't been with someone in literal  _centuries_  because hadn't deemed anyone suitable to become his mate. But Jared was with  _him_ , which could mean...

 

"Jared," he said carefully and the man in question seemed to brace himself, "do you ever think about... _mating_  with me?" 

 

"I-- I don't  _not_ think about the idea of mating with you," he stumbled over his words, flustered. "It's just pretty major.  _Permanent_ , actually. And I couldn't ask you to commit to something like that when your life is really just beginning. In all honesty, I'm not even sure how a mating bond with affect you since you're human." 

 

The word "permanent" kept echoing in Jensen's head as he considered just how serious the implications were. It was difficult to imagine making such a strong commitment at this stage in his life; hell, he wasn't even finished with med-school yet. Jared was right, his life really was just beginning. 

 

On the other hand, he had never felt the way he did about Jared for anyone else. As hard as he tried, picturing himself being with someone else seemed deeply wrong to him in a way that he couldn't fully articulate. And thinking about  _Jared_ with someone else was even worse. 

 

Maybe the fact that he was young was a good reason not to do whatever the hell mating entailed, but it also meant that he would have even more of his life to spend with Jared and he couldn't deny that he liked the sound of that. 

 

"You're not sure how it would affect me? There really hasn't been another dragon out there who decided to shack up with a human?," he finally said after mulling it over. 

 

Jared perked up, surprised that Jensen was even just entertaining the idea. 

 

"I'm sure that there have been at least a few," he conceded. "I just don't know any specific instances aside from an uncle of mine, but that happened before I was born."

 

"Really?"

 

"Yup, I think it happened back in the 1200s somewhere in Poland since that's where most of my ancestors settled in the general vicinity of. There's even a bunch of old legends about him there if you can believe it." Jared seemed to find the idea of it terribly amusing while Jensen struggled to wrap his mind around the concept of having your own family be a part of an entire country's folklore. 

 

"Some versions of the legend involve my uncle being slain by the king of Poland after he terrorized their villages, but I'm pretty sure that all of that kind of stuff was embellished for effect because my dad always said that Uncle Waldemar was just kind of a nuisance who liked to freak people out by flying over villages every so often and occasionally stealing some of the livestock," he explained. "Apparently, one of the farmers' daughters finally got the guts to come up to him and whack him with a broom and tell him to knock it off after he made off with one of their sheep. I guess they ended up falling in love after that and ran off together."

 

"How...romantic?," Jensen said and Jared responded with a half-shrug. 

 

"No one was really sure what happened to him after that. He didn't keep in touch with anyone in the family afterwards and they just let him be since they figured he wanted his privacy." 

 

"That's it?," Jensen asked, a little disappointed. "So you can't ask him about it or anything?" 

 

"Nope. I'm not even sure if he's still alive. When dragons mate, they don't tend to live very long if their partner passes away. They basically die from grief," Jared elaborated solemnly. "So if the woman had a normal human lifespan then he probably died centuries ago, assuming that the mating still worked normally. It's also possible that her lifespan became tied to his own after they mated though. Sometimes I like to think that they're still out there somewhere." 

 

His voice turned a bit wistful near the end of the story and Jensen couldn't tell if he was more intrigued or terrified at the prospect of potentially living for centuries. 

 

They kept talking for a while after that, with Jared entertaining him by telling him about all the things that he accidentally set on fire when he was too young to have precise control over his ability to breathe fire  and about the times that he inadvertently let someone get a glimpse of his dragon form (he claimed that he served as inspiration for the Brothers Grimm on one these occasions, but Jensen thought he was full of it). 

 

The subject of mating had been tabled for the time being as Jared reassured him that there wasn't any need to agree to anything right that second and Jensen allowed himself to be distracted from it by Jared's antics.

 

He never did end up getting his coveted night on the town with Jared on that particular day, but he was happier with making Jared cooking him dinner and tell him stories all night anyway. As he nodded off against Jared's should late that evening with his gentle voice still going on about something or another, he found himself thinking that he wouldn't have minded spending the rest of his life having nights like that with Jared. 

 

***

 

When Jensen dragged himself into Jared's house that evening, it was with no small amount of weariness. His rounds that day had been particularly exhausting and while he couldn't recall exactly how many people had thrown up on him, the fact that it happened multiple times probably said more than enough about the quality of his day and even changing his clothes had only helped ease the grimy feeling so much. He hadn't even stopped by the cafe to see Jared on his way to the house because while Jared didn't really seem to care how disgusting he was when he came in, Jensen figured that everyone else there might. 

 

Luckily, taking a long, hot shower in Jared's very luxurious bathroom went a long way towards helping him relax. He had been spending more time at Jared's place than his own over the past couple of months, and shamelessly taking advantage of his amenities had become routine for him. After he stepped out of the steamy shower (hopping over the dirty clothes that he left in an unceremonious pile on the floor), he wrapped himself in a green, silk robe, one of the surprisingly many that Jared owned. He had learned that Jared liked to indulge in the finer things of life like expensive wines, clothing, and food, and he wasn't exactly complaining about it since he got to reap the benefits. 

 

A text exchange with Jared let him know that he had about an hour to kill before Jared could leave the cafe and when the television proved to have nothing interesting playing, he decided to busy himself by taking a stroll into the basement. He had been down there fairly often ever since the Dragon Incident, and Jared had taken delight in the fact that Jensen seemed so interested in the various treasures in his horde and their origins. 

 

He had been especially interested in some of the more mundane objects in Jared's hoard; ones that weren't particularly valuable in a literal sense but were considered treasures by Jared all the same, Things like battered old dolls that were worse for wear but clearly well-loved once upon a time, pottery shaped by hands that were somewhat unskilled but determined, worn-out sets of hunting knives that someone once used to help provide for their family, and more. All things that were once treasured by the people who once had them and continued to be treasured by Jared even though the people themselves were long gone. 

 

Jared had witnessed the rise and fall of civilizations during his centuries on earth and it hadn't been uncommon for him to come across villages and towns that were either abandoned in a hasty retreat  or razed to the ground by invaders, and he often claimed tokens from them to add to his hoard. It was a terribly sad thing to imagine, Jensen thought when he pictured Jared sorting through the wreckage of an empty home to salvage something from it that he could keep in order to preserve their memory in some small way, probably being the only one who possessed physical evidence that their lives existed at all. 

 

Not all of the objects had such bittersweet backstories though and Jensen had been endlessly amused when he came across a sweater of his very own that he thought he lost ages ago but had really been nabbed by Jared, who turned a brilliant, previously unknown shade of red when Jensen pointed out his discovery with great delight. 

 

Sometimes he spent whole afternoons there listening to Jared tell him about the adventures that led to him acquiring this or that, and sometimes he just lounged down there with a textbook in his hand while idly stroking the warm, scaly head that rested in his lap when Jared felt like shifting forms. It had taken a while for him to feel comfortable around Jensen in his dragon form, but he gradually did it more often once Jensen managed to convince him that if he was going to fun away screaming, then he would have done so already. 

 

Not forcing himself to hide such a huge aspect of his life any more seemed to be doing wonders for Jared as far as Jensen could tell. The difference between the Jared of a few months ago and Jared now was stark; while he had always seemed to be a fairly upbeat person, there had been those rare moments when Jared thought he wasn't looking that Jensen would see him out of the corner of his eye with an almost forlorn expression  or when he seemed evasive and eager to change the subject whenever Jensen asked him about his childhood or family. 

 

He seemed more free now though. Happier.  _They_  were happy, Jensen mused as he sifted idly through some of the golden items in the hoard, letting a few coins fall between his fingers. Jared hadn't mentioned mating again since that first night and Jensen let the subject slide but, either way, things had been pretty great between them. Even taking into account the dragon factor, being with and adoring Jared came easy to him. 

 

It would be even easier if Jared was with him now, but he knew he was just being impatient. It hadn't even been that long since Jared texted him and it wouldn't have been too surprising if he had gotten held up at the cafe by some catastrophe or another. Like if Chad accidentally made the espresso machine do that explosion thing again or if that weird guy who once got caught doing unspeakable acts to one of their croissants came back to violate more of their baked goods. 

 

Typical cafe stuff. 

 

After pitifully bemoaning his boyfriend's absence for a few more minutes, a tangle of jewelry in the pile of gold caught his eye and he let a few of the delicate, intricately woven strings of necklaces and bracelets dangle between his fingers, careful not to damage them. On a whim, he draped a few of them on himself, relishing the feel of cool metal against his skin. Some of the pieces of jewelry even had little sapphires and emeralds affixed to them and he felt almost ridiculous wearing something so lavish, but Jared wasn't there to make fun of him for playing dress-up, so he let them remain in place and took a strange thrill in their presence. Dragons might have had a point about the whole gold-addiction thing, he decided. 

 

He originally intended on taking the jewelry off whenever he heard Jared get home, but it wasn't until he noticed the tell-tale creaking of the basement steps that he realized  that Jared had already arrived while he wasn't paying attention and caught him red-handed. 

 

Jared stared at him strangely without saying anything for a long enough period of time for Jensen to start worrying that he had offended Jared somehow by donning pieces of his hoard and encroaching on his territory and he got to his feet sheepishly in order to apologize. 

 

"Jared, I'm really--" 

 

"Beautiful," Jared finished for him as his eyes traveled up and down Jensen's body, lingering on the areas that were clad in gold. 

 

Jensen left his apology unfinished out of surprise and he finally put together that the look on Jared's face hadn't been anger at all, but arousal. 

 

He could definitely work with that, especially since they still hadn't had sex aside from a few fumbling handjobs to take the edge off. He respected that Jared needed time to feel more settled in the relationship before taking the next step, but he was also spending so much "alone time" with himself that he was starting to legitimately worry that he was going to prove every pastor from his childhood right by making himself go blind. 

 

If he knew that getting decked out in a little jewelry was all it took to get Jared riled up, he would have done it weeks ago. 

 

"You really don't think I look stupid?," he asked, trying to make absolutely sure that Jared wasn't just making fun of him. 

 

Jared moved towards him and gently yanked him by the belt of his robe to drag him close against his body. 

 

"Gold is definitely,  _absolutely_  your color," he assured as he slid one of his hands through the opening of the robe and used it to leisurely caress Jensen  as if he didn't know how wild the simple touch was making him. "You really do look pretty as a princess."

 

Jensen had long ago abandoned any pretense of being annoyed whenever Jared used that particular moniker for him and something about hearing it now made him so hard that he almost felt dizzy from it. 

 

"Princess, huh?," he questioned, pressing himself against Jared's body a little more firmly, "does that still make you the dragon in this scenario or are you the knight in shining armor instead?" 

 

Jared leered at him suggestively. 

 

"Oh, I'm very flexible."

 

"I hope to God you mean that literally," he pleaded as Jared tilted his chin upwards to give him a heated kiss. 

 

Jensen was more than happy to allow Jared to manhandle him up the stairs even though the trip felt like it took hours. He nearly cried in sweet relief when they finally reached the bedroom and he found himself being herded towards the large bed in the center of the room, eventually landing on the mattress with a muted thump. 4

 

Everything was still for a few moments after that, with Jensen lying flat on his back on the bed while Jared leaned over him, one knee between Jensen's splayed legs and both hands planted on either side of his head to brace himself. Jensen wanted to memorize the way Jared looked in that instant; the gentle but disarmingly beautiful smile on his face, the way his shirt was riding upwards to reveal tantalizingly sharp hipbones that Jensen wanted to trace with his fingers, and the way his vibrant eyes were keenly focused on him in a cataloging stare as if he were doing the same thing to him. 

 

Jared broke the spell first when he shifted enough on the bed to get in a position where his hands were free to drift towards the knotted belt on the robe, and he let them hover there uncertainly as if Jensen was a gift that he wasn't sure he was allowed to unwrap. 

 

"You're sure this is okay?," he asked barely above a whisper, searching Jensen's face for any sign of reluctance. 

 

Jensen knew that he should probably be reassuring and say something meaningful and romantic about how much Jared meant to him and how desperately he wanted to make love with him so they could finally express their feelings for each other in a physical way. Or something. 

 

Unfortunately, most of the blood in his body wasn't exactly going to his brain at the moment and he lacked the ability to say anything that was even in the ballpark of eloquence. 

 

"Dear sweet Jesus, I will literally tattoo the words 'Jared Padalecki, I humbly request that you please fuck me before I die of old age' on my forehead if that's what it takes to convince you" is what he managed to string together instead and Jared laughed, but he also tugged at the knot on his belt until the robe finally fell open, so Jensen wasn't complaining. 

 

"Your wish is my command," Jared said, only half-joking as he ran his hands his hand's over Jensen's body, making him shiver in pleasure when the tips of his fingers just barely grazed the length of his aching cock. When the hands left his body, Jensen only felt a brief moment of disappointment that ended when he realized that Jared needed his hands free so that he could take off his own clothes. 

 

Part of him wanted to be the one to peel the clothes off of Jared's body, but watching the way that he slowly unbuttoned his shirt and shimmied out of his jeans was sensual enough in and of itself. One of these days, he'd have to get Jared to give him a proper strip-tease, hopefully at some point when he was no longer dying of sexual frustration. When Jared finally rolled his boxer-briefs down his thighs and let his cock free, Jensen just barely resisted the urge to wolf-whistle at him. It wasn't like he was unfamiliar with it, exactly; they'd jerked each other off on a few occasions, so he already had a pretty good frame of reference, but it was somehow an entirely different thing to look at Jared's extremely generous, thick cock with the knowledge that he would (God willing) have the chance to actually get it inside of him in the very near future. 

 

Jared apparently noticed the appreciative way he was staring because the look on his face landed somewhere between flustered and smug. 

 

"Like what you see?" He smiled coyly as if he didn't already know the answer based on Jensen's complete lack of poker face. 

 

"You know I do, you tease," Jensen replied. "I just hope you still know how to use that thing considering that the last time you got laid was before America even declared independence." 

 

Jared pouted and the goofy expression on his face provided a strange contrast with how devastatingly attractive the rest of his naked body looked. 

 

"I've still got moves, Ackles. It'll take longer than that for my skills to get rusty."

 

"I'm pretty sure that after, like, the 200th year of celibacy, your virginity just grows back. We learned about it in med-school." 

 

Jared merely rolled his eyes and it wasn't long before he proceeded to prove that he did indeed have skills when he managed to have Jensen moaning and rocking against him while he was three fingers deep inside of him. Jensen could feel how hard Jared was by the way he occasionally brushed against him, but he was nothing but patient as he slowly worked Jensen open. Every so often, he would curl his fingers against his prostate or stroke his hand down Jensen's cock, but the contact was always so fleeting that it was just enough turn his legs into jelly, but not enough to give him relief. 

 

By the time that Jared tugged his fingers free, Jensen felt like he had just run a marathon, but he still needed more. Jared leaned over to place a kiss against his sweaty nape  before moving away so he could grab a condom from his nightstand, but Jensen interrupted him mid-reach with a hand on his wrist . 

 

"I don't think we need that," he said after a few seconds of hesitation. Jensen was clean and knew that sexual diseases weren't of concern to Jared regardless, so he figured that Jared only had protection handy in order to make him more comfortable and while Jensen appreciated the gesture, he didn't particular desire it. 

 

"Are you sure?," Jared blinked at him in surprise. 

 

Jensen hadn't ever gone bareback with another guy before, never really even felt the urge to, honestly, but it was something that he found himself craving with Jared, a kind of intimacy that he never thought he'd want with another person. 

 

"I'm positive. Just wanna feel you," he insisted and watched in anticipation as Jared simply nodded at him and slicked up his cock. When he was finished, he glanced at Jensen with uncertainty, his demeanor a far cry from the confident, take charge show he put on while he was finger-fucking Jensen  until he was on the verge of completely forsaking any pretense of dignity by begging for more. 

 

"How do you wanna...?," Jared finished his question with a series of hand gestures that seemed vaguely sexual.

 

"I've been kind of wondering what it would be like to ride a dragon," Jensen smirked. 

 

"Oh, I can definitely get on board with that." 

 

Without any more dilly-dallying, he clambered into Jared's lap and guided his cock to his entrance. He paused briefly before trying to lower himself down on it, daunted slightly by its thickness but any intimidation he felt was outweighed by how badly he wanted to prove to himself that he could fit it inside of him. He sucked in a quiet hiss once he got the tip of it past his rim and Jared's hand was stroking soothingly down his back as he slowly seated himself down on it until Jared was balls deep inside of him. The stretch was almost too much at first and he buried his face in the crook of Jared's neck to hide any sort of pained expression that might make Jared try to call the whole thing off. The feeling was fortunately brief, and it wasn't long before the burn of it faded and he was able to fully appreciate just how amazing it felt to be stretched so widely around Jared's enormous cock . 

 

"You okay?," Jared murmured in concern. 

 

"Oh God, yes," Jensen moaned and proved it by beginning to slowly work himself up and down on Jared's cock, not even bothering to restrain the gasps and sharp "ah"s that were punched out of him each time. Encouraged by how much Jensen seemed to enjoy himself, Jared began gently rocking into him in sync with the way that Jensen was bouncing in his lap. 

 

They were so close together that they were practically chest-to-chest, close enough that Jensen's cock would scrape against Jared's hard abs as he moved, and while the friction of it was definitely an added bonus, there was something about the way that his cock left little glistening streaks of pre-come on Jared's skin in its wake that really did him in. It made Jared look like even more of a mess than he already did with his flushed cheeks, sweaty chest, and flyaway hair was sticking to his face. Debauched was a good look on him and Jensen vowed to make him look that way as often as humanly possible. 

 

Jared was nailing his prostate so perfectly that he was on the edge to begin with, but when he felt one of Jared's huge hands wrap around him, he knew that it was as good as over. 

 

"Christ, you feel amazing. I'm so fucking close," he swore as his pace became more erratic and he mindlessly rode Jared hard enough that the sound of their thighs slapping together echoed obscenely in the room. 

 

"Come on, Jensen," Jared urged, sounding at least as wrecked as he was, "Just let go for me, I know you're almost there." 

 

And Jensen did; clenched tightly around Jared's cock and with his thighs practically trembling with exertion, he finally came so hard that his vision whited out for a few seconds and he slumped bonelessly against Jared's chest, his palm resting against the brilliant patch of scales where he could feel the frantic pounding of his heart beneath his hand. While Jared began to thrust into him a little more feverishly, jostling his body like he were a ragdoll, Jensen let his hand continue to linger there, stroking the smooth scales with his thumb absentmindedly. He wondered in that was somehow what pushed Jared over the edge because it was only a moment later that he let out a strangled curse and Jensen felt him come inside of him, pulsing hot and wet. 

 

Afterwards, they stayed like that with Jared still inside of him, his arms wrapped around him and pulling him tightly against his chest. Jensen was vaguely aware that Jared was whispering sweet nothings in his ear about how beautiful he was and how perfect he'd been, but Jensen was so fucked-out that he barely had the presence of mind to comprehend the praise much less respond to it with anything but incoherent mumbling. 

 

He was half-asleep, but he still heard Jared chuckle at him fondly. 

 

"You ready to lie down?," he asked, placing a fond kiss against Jensen's hairline. 

 

"Mmhmm," he nodded against his chest, but didn't actually make any attempt to move. 

 

"Do you need some help to do it?" 

 

"...mmhmm." 

 

Jared rolled their still connected bodies over so that Jensen's back was against the mattress and he gently pulled out of him, rubbing soothingly around Jensen's slightly sore hole for a few seconds afterwards to ease the slight ache Jensen felt from the sudden loss. He wondered if he should feel self-conscious lying there gaping and literally dripping with come, but he only felt a warm sense of self-satisfaction. 

 

They lied there in silence for a while, both content to enjoy the afterglow and too lazy to clean up just  yet, and it was Jensen who eventually spoke first. 

 

"I was definitely wrong," he admitted, rolling onto his side to look in Jared's direction. 

 

"About us?," Jared's brow pinched in concern. 

 

"No!," Jensen flicked his shoulder. "About you losing your sex-mojo. You've definitely still got some moves." 

 

Jared scoffed, but Jensen could see the redness bloom on his cheeks. 

 

"You weren't so bad yourself," he complimented. "Maybe we can work in a little more sex-mojo later tonight." 

 

Jensen groaned. 

 

"As much as I appreciate the idea, I think I need some down time before I'm able to take on your..." he broke off, trying to find a delicate euphemism for Jared's giant dick, "...trouser-monster again." 

 

That probably wasn't it. 

 

"Isn't it 'trouser-snake'?" Jared scrunched up his face. 

 

"That is  _not_  a mere snake. Well, maybe a python," Jensen conceded. 

 

"I guess I can't say that you aren't good for my ego. And besides," he reached over to palm Jensen's still sensitive cock admiringly, "I was more hoping that  _I_  would be the one taking on  _your_...'trouser-monster' this time around. You don't exactly have anything to be ashamed of in that department yourself." 

 

Jensen's cock twitched ever so slightly under Jared's hand and he perked up in interest, suddenly feeling very awake. Jared could definitely be onto something there, he decided. 

 

"I guess if you insist," he sighed long-sufferingly as if the idea of fucking Jared's perky ass was a heroic burden that he would reluctantly bear. 

 

"How generous of you." Jared clearly wasn't buying the act. 

 

They went more slowly than they did before; it was unhurried and sweet rather than the desperate passion that consumed them earlier. They kissed lazily  for a long while as they built up to the act itself and Jensen didn't know whether it had been minutes or hours when he finally pushed inside of Jared, spooned up behind him with his chest plastered against his back. Jensen noted that Jared was just as hot on the inside as he was on the outside and the sensation of it was intoxicating. After sending up a silent prayer of thanks for the fact that Jared's ass really was as deliciously tight as Jensen had always dreamed, he began slowly rolling his hips, not in any particular rush this time around. 

 

Jensen found that Jared made the most exhilarating little whines when he fucked him just so and he relished all of the other delighted moans and gasps that he was able to wring out of him. When he came this time, it was with Jared's ass contracting around him and his hand wrapped loosely around Jared's spent cock. His orgasm was a more tapered, slow release this time rather than hitting him hard and fast, and he tried to chase the feeling of bliss for as long as he could, still thrusting slowly and shallowly into Jared until it finally ended. 

 

He drifted in and out after that,  opening one eye to watch Jared slip out of bed and walk to the bathroom when he finally decided to to take the onus of being the one to find them something to clean up with. He admired the slight jiggle that Jared's ass made as he walked and felt a sense of smug pride when he saw a trickle of come leak down his thigh. 

 

He let out a half-hearted protest when Jared came back with a couple of warm washcloths and tossed one to land on his chest with a wet smack. 

 

There was a quiet sort of intimacy between them as they took turns gently wiping each other down and Jensen sank back into the bed a couple of minutes later in relief once he had rid himself of the come that that had begun to dry and flake on his skin. Before Jared lied back down, Jensen finally noticed a faint hint of smoke in the air and spied a curious black, ashy smudge on Jared's pillow. He was about to ask about it when he realized that Jared must have accidentally singed the pillow while burying his face in it while Jensen had been fucking him. Jensen wasn't sure if he was proud to have been able to make him lose his composure or concerned that Jared apparently had a tendency to breathe fire during sex inadvertently. He decided not to worry about it for the time being and instead found himself taking comfort in the rich, smoky scent in the air, as it was the same one that also seemed to linger on and around Jared so often, especially on his clothes. 

 

Wait. 

 

Jensen sat up in bed with a jolt, startling Jared. 

 

"You're a dragon," he accused. 

 

"Yes...?" Jared seemed confounded. 

 

"And you breathe fire."

 

"I...do, yeah. But you already know that, right?" 

 

"And fire has smoke." 

 

"Oh God, it happened," Jared said grimly. "I actually fucked your brains out; I was afraid of this." 

 

Jensen glared at him petulantly. 

 

"You were never a smoker at all!" 

 

Jared's expression turned sheepish. 

 

"I'm not," he admitted.  "I just sneak out into the back room of the cafe a lot so I can use my fire-breathing to roast coffee beans and the smell always gets in my clothes." 

 

"I can't believe you!" 

 

"I'm able to get a very precise roast that way. Really brings out the flavors," Jared said defensively, which Jensen could attest was true but also besides the point. 

 

"That wasn't the part I'm upset about," he groused. "I can't believe you let me spend months trying to help you kick a smoking addiction that doesn't exist." 

 

Jared gave him a plaintive, hang-dog look. 

 

"I was in too deep," he argued. "You were already committed to helping me with it and you were so cute with all of your pamphlets and power point presentations that I didn't know how to tell you the truth. In my defense, I thought you would have figured it out before now in light of the dragon thing." 

 

That was actually a decent point, but Jensen wasn't going to admit to it. 

 

"You could have at least not let me buy you all that nicotine gum," he finally grumbled, deflating slightly. "What did you even do with it?" 

 

Jared blinked at him owlishly. 

 

"Uh, chewed it? It's gum," he shrugged. "It's actually surprisingly not bad. I go through it pretty quickly." 

 

"Jesus Christ," Jensen put his face in his hands. "That's because it actually has nicotine in it." 

 

"...well, I didn't know that. Why would they put nicotine in the gum if the people using it are addicted to it?" 

 

Jensen sighed. 

 

"Because for people with an  _actual_ smoking problem, it helps gradually ease them-- nevermind. Just...stop chewing it."

 

Jared wrapped his arms around Jensen's waist and tugged him down against his chest. Jensen relaxed into the embrace but still feigned annoyance at him. 

 

"I'll never lie about having a substance abuse problem again," Jared solemnly promised 

 

"Yeah, yeah," Jensen mumbled as he snuggled into the cozy embrace. "You're just lucky that you're so warm and toasty."

 

"You're not gonna be saying that when it's July," Jared pointed out. 

 

"I'll just break up with you when Summer rolls around and seduce you again when it's winter," he reasoned, knowing full well that he'd probably still let Jared sprawl all over him even if he was on the verge of heat stroke. 

 

"Smart," Jared nodded. 

 

That night, Jensen fell asleep curled into Jared's body, their legs tangled together, Jared's fingers gently combing through his hair, and with a quiet, sincere "I love you" whispered so faintly that Jensen half-wondered if it was a product of his imagination. It didn't matter though, because Jensen knew that they would have plenty of time for Jared to tell him again and for Jensen to say it back. They had a lifetime, in fact. 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> If you guys enjoyed this, please feel free to leave kudos and comments (or come talk to me on [my tumblr](http://efflorescentjared.tumblr.com/))! Also, I'm sorry that the dragon aspect didn't actually come up until like 10,000 words in. But that's what people loved so much about Game of Thrones, right? Waiting forever for the dragons to show up? 
> 
> Some story notes: 
> 
> "Smok" is Polish for "dragon" so, yes, Jared literally named his shop "Dragon Cafe" and, yes, he thinks he's hilarious. 
> 
> Also, the Polish legend Jared mentions actually is a part of Polish folklore, but it's a highly fictionalized version (well, more fictional than a story about dragons already is) because the tale of [the Dragon of Wawel Hill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wawel_Dragon) doesn't actually involve a smitten dragon running off with a human woman.


End file.
